BRAINCAKEAIDS
HIV causes AIDS by killing or interfering with the normal functioning of T-helper cells.
An infected person may have 200 T helper cells per mm3 of blood compared to 800 - 1200 cells per mm3 for an uninfected person.
Without sufficient numbers of T helper cells the immune system cannot adequately stimulate B cells to produce antibodies or cytotoxic T cells to destroy infected cells.
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Key terms in this lesson
- antibody
- A Y-shaped protein, made of four polypeptide chains with variable regions complementary to a specific antigen, produced by B plasma cells.
- B-lymphocyte
- A type of white blood cell, matured in the bone marrow, responsible for the humoral immune response and antibody production.
- T-lymphocyte
- A type of white blood cell, matured in the thymus gland, responsible for the cell-mediated immune response.
- memory cell
- A long-lived lymphocyte, produced during the primary immune response, that allows a faster secondary immune response on re-exposure to the same antigen.
More in Cell Recognition and the Immune System
- Herd Immunity
- Vaccination Programme Failure
- Ethics
- MMR Vaccine Case Study
- Structure of HIV Virus
- Replication of HIV Virus
- The ELISA Test
- Antibiotics
All 30 lessons in Cell Recognition and the Immune System · All AQA AS-level Biology topics